The current world chess champion is GM Viswanathan Anand of India. Born on December 11, 1969, he picked his early lessons in chess, at the age of six from his mother, Susila Viswanathan. Anand holds a degree in Commerce and lives in Spain and India. He has been honoured with many prestigious awards like the Arjuna Award, the Padma Shri, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the Padma Bhushan, the Sportstar, Sportsman of the Millennium, the Birla Living Legends and the Jameo de Oro Award.

“Anand is one of the greatest sport persons that India ever had.” – Rajendra S. Pawan, Chairman, NIIT

Read more...

Add your comment

By Peter Hum
January 2008

In 2007, the organizers of the Canadian Open and Canadian Youth Chess Championships in Ottawa raised more than $90,000 in cash and many invaluable in-kind donations from sponsors and donors to stage the two events.

We had no other choice — we lacked the government support that some of our predecessors in other cities enjoyed. Fortunately, we secured support from telecommunications giant TELUS (far and away our biggest sponsor), Magmic Games (an Ottawa company that makes gaming software — including chess — for mobile devices including RIM's Blackberry), Hill & Knowlton Canada, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Marriott, ATFCAN (which had a special interest in sponsoring Indian GMs at the Open), OZ Optics (which felt the same way about Turkish players), Bell Canada and several embassies. Major Canadian banks and law firms also made tax-deductible donations.

“How did you do it?” you ask. Q + A-style, here is a summary of our sponsorship drive:

Read more...

Add your comment

By Stewart Reuben, February 03 2008

When I was a child I remember our teachers printing on a page by having a tray of jelly and carving words into the jelly. They then put ink onto the tray, put a sheet of paper onto the jelly, removed it and had the information on the sheet. They repeated this exercise until there was one sheet for each child.

Later there were great improvements. One typed onto a plastic skin using a mechanical typewriter. The type cut into the skin. The skin was put onto a Xerox machine and the ink came through the letters. Now it was possible to run off large quantities. Errors were corrected by pasting over the incorrect words with liquid paper. This was how I produced my first chess bulletins and there remain collections of many events with the games recorded in this way.

Read more...

Add your comment

Chess is hard. It involves mental, emotional and physical strain. What are the rewards? -Rick Garel

What attracts me about chess is "personal best ". It is the challenge of rising above the level you may find yourself at any particular time. We all strive to improve, regardless of the level of our play, and the understanding we have of the game. And I am attracted when it is done under tournament conditions, where there is serious opposition to you finding the best moves, and playing a game you are proud of. It gets the adrenalin going. Finally there is the great element of "surprise ". Some tactics are truly beautiful to behold. Best if you find them. But much appreciated even when played against you, and you didn't see it coming. -Bob Armstrong

Read more...

Add your comment